After winning an EnterpriseGY competition, launched at the Big Ideas Conference, 3 Oriel students won the chance to host a raceday at Gt Yarmouth Racecourse.

The boys started off by choosing to raise money for the childrens ward at the James Paget Hospital and set off  full speed ahead with helping to organise the day. The boys met regulary with the staff at the racecourse and came up with some ideas which they felt would help make the day more successful than it already was.

The weather couldnt have been better on Friday 29th May for the afternoon race meeting. Blazing sunshine and the half term break saw good crowds of people turn up at the races for a day of fun. Liam, Max and Faisal started off by being given a tour of the racecourse, including a visit to the weighing room where the jockeys go before they race. This was followed by the boys being invited into the enclosure to judge the ‘best looking horse’ and then they were priviledged to present the trophy to the winning trainer of the first race.

The staff at the racecourse were very generous with their time and we would like to say a big thank you to Jan, Maria and Glenn, the students had an amazing day as did some members of staff from Oriel who went along.

The students would like to announce that they raised a total of £200 for the childrens ward at the James Paget Hospital and will be presenting them with a cheque very soon.

The Oriel Hedgehogs

Josh, Macauley, Shaun and Curtis.

On Monday 8^th June, 16 Oriel Students (along with a little bit of help from 1 student from Great Yarmouth High) took part in the first Norfolk Schools Volleyball Championships. They were split into 4 teams and each took on a different name. We had:

The Oriel Spikers

Bradley, Michael, Jordan and Kyle.

The Oriel Stingers

Chloe, Jodie, Sam, Krista (from GY High) and Ray.

The Oriel Titans

Matthew, Jayden, Lewis and Kyle.

All four teams really did themselves and the school proud with some excellent performances. Some of the organisers and other coaches commented on how the Oriel players were by far the best players at the competition in terms of their technique and playing style. After a day of great competition and enjoyment Oriel had taken four of the top 9 places in the competition. All the teams only lost games to teams of year 10 and 11 boys whose height and physical strength sometimes overcame Oriels’ skilful play but beat all of a similar age and even some of the older teams. The tournament was eventually won by a year 11 team from Lynn Grove who beat the other year 11 team from Lynn Grove in the final, but…

To put into context how well our teams did, our youngest team, Oriel Titans only lost to the eventual runners up by 3 points!

On top of this the Oriel Hedgehogs narrowly lost to the same Lynn Grove team in the semi to miss out on a place in the final, but beat another older team from Aylsham to finish in an incredible 3^rd place, losing only one game all day.

The Stingers weren’t far behind finishing in 6^th place, having played some outstanding volleyball in the group stage.

The Oriel Titans came in 8^th, having done so well to qualify for the quarter finals ahead of much older teams in their group.

Finishing one place behind, The Spikers, won the King of the Court competition, after missing out on the quarter finals by the narrowest of margins, securing themselves in 9^th place.

All of the players should be really proud of themselves for achieving such great results at this inaugural tournament, and the future looks very bright for Oriel Volleyball if the players continue to improve as they have done this year.

Well done guys!!

We have bid a sad farewell to our present year 11 students. We wish them good luck in their exams and look forward to seeing them at the end of year prom in July.